In what universe
by taiyari
Summary: A fragment of ROTG with Pitch and Sandy in role reversal, Pitch being a guardian and Sandy the corrupted nightmare The beginning of how it could


_Which tights more your heart?_  
_The wide grin of a friend_  
_Or the smooth grip from a foe?_

Pitch's hands trembled as he felt the arrow sank into his back. He gave a jerky step on his golden dream sand, a sudden tremor at his heart making him gasp for air.

"PITCH!" Jack's desperate cry reached his ears, but it felt distant and lost. He looked at his hands, the golden sand in him turning black with shocking speed.

A pang of pain hit his lungs, forcing him to bow at the nightmares surrounding him. He tried to fight back against the inarticulate, stuttering thoughts crawling at his mind.

Above him, the other smiled with smugness, his dark lips stretching wide. _I know how my fear is eating at you_, said that wicked smile._ I have won_.

Refusing to leave like this, he used the last of his energies to stand tall and look fiercely at his darker counterpart.

Sanderson just crossed his arms, his smile given up a little.

Then, everything went black.

I*I*I

"So you two have known each other for quite a time, uh?"

Jack Frost and the four guardians were gathered at the Tooth Fairy's palace. Sanderson's nightmares had just left, taking away Toothiana's little workers and leaving a taunting menace to them all.

"Of course." he bent down to take one of the forgotten tooth boxes from the ground.

"You do seem to understand his sand-talking pretty well." Jack Frost was following him now, while the others tried to calm Tooth, making quick plans about what to do with the Boogeyman's imminent danger.

He smacked his lips. "It's natural." He got up and gave the empty box to Jack. "We are… quite like two sides of the same coin."

"You just happen to be the nice guy." Said Jack with a smirk.

"That you would say." Pitch's voice turned quiet and sad.

North called them then, cutting their little chat and leaving Jack with a frown on his face. Before joining them, Pitch put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a reassuring smile with a slow nod.

Everything's going to be fine, he tried to say.

But the words never left his mouth.

I*I*I

Long strands of black sand had him pinned down under the dark. A cold pain still lingered his lungs and throat, his hands limp at his sides and mouth shut tight on a thin line.

He slowly woke up, chin against his chest. The first thing he could felt was fear. Then, despair, emptiness.

The battle had been lost.

He opened his eyes, spine bent and heart tight. In the taunting dark, the memory of his last conscious instants played again before him, Jack's desperate cry echoing on an endless loop that pierced his ears.

North, Toothiana, Bunnymund… Jack. Were they safe?

He forced himself to think of them. He tried to push back the stillness of his body, the burning fear eating at his brain. He needed hope. He needed the warm belief of knowing everything was going to be alright.

He tried to think of his friends, on Easter, which was near and most needed. He tried to imagine them, victorious against Sanderson, happy and safe.  
But against this monstrous darkness, it all felt like a weak lie.

I*I*I

"So he wasn't always like this?" Jack's confusion played wild across his face. "He really was one of the good guys?"

They were at North's place, the two of them alone again for the time being at the workshop.

After what happened at Toothiana's palace, the four guardians (plus Jack Frost) had decided to prepare at their best for the task at hand. They couldn't take any chances with Sanderson's menace.

Pitch gulped. Bringing his counterpart's past to the light always made him uneasy.

"No, he wasn't. None of us began like this. He's not the exception."

"But why did he become evil and..." Pitch stiffed his posture. "Well, you became the good ones?"

He let scape a brittle laugh at Jack's innocent approach. "Who are we, to foreseen or stop the greater scheme's will? Bad luck? Destiny? No one deserves what happened to Sanderson Mansnoozie."

Jack pointed his gaze at the floor.

Pitch felt how the boy wanted to ask more, but doubted on doing it. An awkward silence filled the room. His voice was calm and warm when he talked again, trying to ease things a bit.

"He was a star pilot on a shooting star." Jack faced him again, mouth agape.

"Oh, you should have seen him." Pitch's hands moved then with grace, forming a golden star with his sand, comets and planets encompassing it with feign speed. "He shone like his ship, a bright golden so different from my own, the light of suns and planets fueling his countless travels."

North's personal workshop lightened with hundreds of golden miniature stars and planets. Between them, dozens of comets and marvelous crafted space ships flied through the room, Sanderson's star ship the brightest of all. Jack's eyes were full with wonder as Pitch continued to form his tale both with sand and words.

"He was the most talented pilot of the golden age." A spaceship shaped like the moon appeared beside Sanderson's star. "The Lunanoff family, the royal family, was quite proud of him and paid him the greatest of honors." Jack could see how the tiniest of occupants were waving from the moon shaped spaceship to the flying star.

"Those were happier times indeed." A sudden wave of Pitch's hand dissolved the golden sand display, leaving again the cold light of the pole fill the workshop.

"What happened then?"

Pitch's face stained with a deep frown. "Fearlings." He said low, sorrow shading his voice.

"What are-?" Jack's question was interrupted by the workshop doors opening, North's voice high and enthusiast.

"AHA! We have a perfect solution! Prepare now friends!"

"You better hurry up or this man will make us fly again on his damned sleigh." A hopping Bunnymund came from behind North.

"Not the sleigh again." Said Pitch standing up, his sadden expression gone.

Jack gave him a questioning look.

"We'll talk later." whispered Pitch, smiling at him.

That later never came.

I*I*I*I*I*I

Hi! I know I owe chapters at the bakery AU fic I'm doing. Sorry for that! I moved to another country and I was having lots and lots of things to do... but the next chapter will come soon I promise.

Meanwhile I decided to post this because I found it on my old files...  
As always, comments and critiques are more than welcome. I want to get better at writing and it's a good exercise to learn English better.


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